


All Hallows' Eve

by MulticoloredRose



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Friends as Family, Fun and Games, Gen, Halloween, Halloween Costumes, Multi, Normandy Crew as Family, Subtle Hints at OT3, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-29 22:23:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21417640
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MulticoloredRose/pseuds/MulticoloredRose
Summary: Liara gets first hand experience with a rather interesting human holiday.
Relationships: Kaidan Alenko & Liara T'Soni, Kaidan Alenko/Male Shepard/Ashley Williams, Liara T'Soni & Ashley Williams, Male Shepard & Liara T'Soni, Normandy Team
Comments: 1
Kudos: 5





	All Hallows' Eve

**Author's Note:**

> I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I have absolutely no idea how long the events of Mass Effect 1 actually are or what time of the year they take place…but honestly I don’t really care. There are a lot of side missions and planet jumping and I’m going to drag out this universe as much as I want! (cue evil laughter and lightning strikes) So just run with extended timelines please. Thank you.  
Oh, and I don’t know why I keep coming from Liara’s POV. I meant to actually make this one Tali but it made more sense to me for it to be Liara so…yeah. That’s what happened. Enjoy!

One of the more fascinating things that Liara will say about being stationed on a human vessel is the ability to interact personally with an entirely different species and their various cultures. Of all of the Citadel species, humans show the greatest variety in internal differences and cultural abnormalities. Truly, since she first started walking these halls, she’s felt like she’s knee deep in an anthropological study.

It’s been a while now since the Commander and his ground team of Lieutenant Alenko and Chief Williams rescued her from Therum, and it feels like there hasn’t been a day where she doesn’t become aware of some strange, new human custom. A lot of times, feeling like she’s misstepped or make a mistake somewhere.

_‘Putting your foot in your mouth?’ Kaidan asks, pausing for a moment to wipe the oil from his hands as he stops working on the Mako’s systems to look at her. ‘No, that’s not a made-up phrase.’ He says with a shake of his head. This is a common thing, coming to Lieutenant Alenko for clarification on human colloquialisms or even just clarity on things she’s noticed. The human biotic has always taken the time to answer all of her questions and he’s never made her feel foolish for not knowing which has been an invaluable feeling when surrounded by so much strangeness. ‘It means that you’ve made a blunder, most of the time verbal. It does tend to have connotations of it being something that you might regret. So it might mean that you’ve said something unintentionally tactless or possibly offensive.’ _

_‘So when Navigator Pressley said it, he meant that he felt he’d said something wrong or transgressed?’ Liara asks and Kaidan nods. _

_‘Most likely. If he was using it in reference to himself then I’d say yes, but it’s a phrase that can be used in a third person situation. You could reference that someone else put their foot in their mouth too. So either yourself or someone else.’_

It’s a feeling that Liara has certainly felt that she’s done her fair share of since she started serving on the Normandy. She’s made many blunders that have mortified her over and over again, but slowly she thinks that she’s starting to integrate into the human population on the ship. There is a moment a little while later though where she feels that all of her learned experiences about humans isn’t anywhere near enough to fully understand their nuances. Namely in regards to their recognized ‘holy days’. It seems like suddenly, practically overnight, the entire ship explodes into a mess of strange decorations referencing spiders and the dead as well as people constantly trying to jump out and scare each other.

Although at this point they’ve stopped scaring Liara after she created a singularity in the middle of the mess that Kaidan had to contain and save the soldiers caught up in it with his own biotics and Shepard was forced to put an immediate stop to it, apparently she’s too easy to scare; and the soldiers were supposed to stop scaring Wrex after Wrex decided to ‘scare back’, but somehow Wrex and a few of the soldiers have bonded over traumatizing each other for laughs, something that Liara does not understand in the slightest. Garrus almost shot someone with a small sidearm that no one knew he had on his body and he’s made friends now with a few of the others as well.

“It’s called Halloween.” Kaidan answers her inquiry as he puts food onto his tray. “Or All Hallows’ Eve. It’s an old holiday. Its roots go back a long, long time and there are several variations on it like the Dia de los Muertos.”

“Dia de los Muertos?”

“Day of the Dead. It’s a holiday dedicated to deceased family members or loved ones. Kind of a day of remembrance.” Kaidan answers her and they both go and sit down at one of the tables.

“So ‘Halloween’ is a day attributed to the dead?”

“For the most part. There’s a lot of history there, religious and culturally. It was once believed that it was a time when the veil between the supernatural world and the human world was weakest and when spirits and other creatures were at their most active. These days though it’s more of a holiday tied in with revelry. People go around and have fall festivals and do corn mazes or haunted houses. Plus they dress up, which you’ll probably see on the ship if we don’t get shore leave in time. On Earth, people dress up in costumes and just have fun. Kids dress up and go around doing what we call ‘trick-or-treating’ where they go around at night and get candy.”

“That sounds…chaotic.”

“That’s half the fun.” Kaidan says with a big smile.

“I see. Should I partake in these festivities? Or would it be insulting?”

“Not at all. Have fun with it.” Kaidan replies. “No one’s going to be jumping out at you anymore, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t participate. Shepard didn’t do that to ostracize you from the crew, he just sort of wanted to be sure that we weren’t accidentally creating any dangerous mass effect fields while in space.”

“I heard my name.” Shepard says, coming over and putting down his own tray before sitting. “What are we talking about?”

“Halloween in general.” Kaidan replies. “Liara was curious about what’s going on right now.”

“Well, you’re in luck.” Shepard says with a grin. “We’re stopping off at Thaleia.” Kaidan’s head pops up a little in surprise to that information. Liara glances back between the two of them.

“I’m afraid I don’t understand the significance?” She says.

“Thaleia is a large human settlement. Chances are, festivities are going to be at a high point and we’re going to be restocking at the base for Halloween.” Shepard says. “It means that you, Dr. T’Soni, are going to get an up close and personal introduction to some human customs.” She can’t help the smile that crosses her face.

“I can’t wait.” She says, and she truly means it.

Thaleia is beautiful. A world with a large human presence and an even larger agricultural footprint. The day that marks ‘All Hallows Eve’ comes and the crew from the Normandy all descend onto a base funded Halloween festival. Garrus has put on an eyepatch and keeps saying ‘Arg’ much to the entertainment of the weapons crew that’s dragging him along. Tali has slid on what appears to be a ‘witch’s costume’ complete with the hat that keeps trying to slide off of her helmet. Pressley and the other engineers are thrilled though and drag her around even though she can’t eat any of the various food and snack choices. Liara’s uncertain where Wrex has gone, if he’s even involved in the festivities and Joker is wearing a shirt that says ‘nudist on strike’ as the other members of the cockpit pull him around and she feels uncertain in her costume as she adjusts the ‘bunny ears’ on her head and looks around. There are hundreds of humans here and it’s all very overwhelming. She’d always thought that the main cities of Thessia or even the Citadel was packed but they hold nothing on how easily and at ease the humans are with packing in and getting into various lines.

“Liara!” She hears her name called and she immediately spins around to see who yelled it, hope springing in her chest. She doesn’t want to be left alone to her own devices and she sees Kaidan and Shepard waving at her and then motioning for her to come over. “…Joker helped you pick out a costume, didn’t he?” Shepard asks with a small, amused smile and Liara looks down at her ‘bunny’ costume and nods.

“He said it was a ‘classic’.” She says uncertainly, suddenly realizing that she probably should have asked someone else if the pilot was having a joke at her expense and Shepard shakes his head.

“It is. He didn’t lie about that.” Shepard says. He’s wearing some kind of cape with a funny neckline while Kaidan is wearing something with a sideways cape and a white shirt that is unbuttoned and shows a decent amount of his chest.

“What are you two?”

“I’m Dracula.” Shepard says, pulling up his arm in a strange way in front of his face. “I vant to suck your blood.” He says and Kaidan snorts.

“He’s so threatening.” He says with a laugh.

“Dracula?”

“Old human story. Vampires. I’ll get you the book.” Kaidan replies and Liara nods.

“And what are you?”

“Musketeer.” He says with a grin. He looks around. “Do you have anyone you’re buddied with?”

“…not at the moment, no.”

“Wanna stick with us until everyone heads over to the corn maze? We’re just waiting for Ashley to come back and then we’re going to go to the haunted house. If you wanted to come…” Kaidan offers and she nods quickly, too quickly and she has to adjust the ears again.

“I’d like that.” She says and they both drag her along before she sees Chief Williams return with some kind of snacks in her hands. She’s wearing a full body black suit and has what appears to be cat ears on her head.

“Hey T’Soni. Hot costume.” She says as she hands off one of the snacks to Kaidan and takes a bite of something herself. “Coming with us?”

“For now, if you don’t mind.”

“Nah. Team shit. Let’s all go tear it up.” Williams says with a shrug and something inside of Liara relaxes a little at that. She hadn’t wanted to feel like she was intruding on whatever group she joined and this one seems to be completely at ease with her being there. Kaidan ends up offering her some ‘nachos’ which she finds she doesn’t particularly like which just leads to Shepard saying ‘more for me’ as he steals some with a smirk, but the funnel cake that Williams shares with her is rather good.

“So Liara. I’m going to guess you’ve never been in a haunted house?” Shepard asks as they get in line and prepare to go into the place where she can hear screaming coming from inside.

“…no?”

“It’s all fake.” Shepard says. “No one is allowed to touch you and it’s all just for fun. It can be a bit much if you’re not ready for it though. If you want to go, you just say the word and the actors will escort you out immediately, no harm no foul.” He looks at her. “If you don’t like it, don’t stay on our account. We’d rather everyone was enjoying themselves.” He gets two nods from the other two in the team and Liara nods, getting ready to go in. She’s not sure what to expect, but she can see what Shepard means. There are humans dressed up like half dead…corpses she’s guessing they’re supposed to be. She’s seen a few Normandy members dressing as ‘zombies’ and these costumes look similar and what appears to be people with white face paint and red wigs and strange smiles painted across their lips and cheeks. It’s unsettling, but nothing that registers as an attack now that she’s mostly ready for it. The strobing lights throw off her perception a bit, making the humans look like they’re moving in strange ways across the halls.

She is confused however when two of the bravest men she’s ever met turn into screaming, terrified people who keep hiding behind Williams each time there’s a ‘jump scare’ as if she’s going to protect them. Williams is laughing half of the time, rarely jumping and Kaidan winks at Liara and gets her to join in on ‘being scared’ and Liara finds that the whole event turns out rather enjoyable when she lets herself be part of the game, holding onto Kaidan’s arm and screaming at all the right times – a few times a little more honestly then she expected when she gets caught off guard.

The pictures at the end are absolutely hilarious, and she buys a few for posterities sake.

They meet up with Garrus at the shooting games, ‘cleaning out the place’ for the military kids who are thrilled to be getting free stuffed animals and Shepard and Garrus challenge each other to various aiming games with more and more extreme restrictions on themselves in their shots to prove their ‘prowess’ over the other. Williams wins the largest bear – a ‘teddy bear’ if Liara’s correct – and offers it to Kaidan who laughs like this is some kind of joke that Liara doesn’t get. The brunet biotic ends up challenging Williams to a game of dunking their heads in water to grab apples – humans are so strange – and although he wins, William leans over and whispers something in his ear that makes him blush and makes Shepard laugh.

They end up picking up Tali, Joker and Wrex, Wrex who has just been standing off to the side and got grabbed by Shepard who wouldn’t take no for an answer, and the group of them go into the corn maze without any maps in hopes of figuring out how to get from one side to the other. Joker and Garrus fake fight over which ways to go, only to both team up and argue with Shepard who Liara is certain is picking all the wrong ways just to get under the other two’s skin and although it’s slow progress – since they’re all keeping to Joker’s pace without the pilot asking – it’s one of the more chaotic but entertaining nights that Liara thinks she’s ever had.

Wrex ends up carrying Joker to the exit once they get out of the maze since the walking becomes just a bit too much for the pilot, and the lot of them take a group picture together before the night ends and they all head to their accommodations during the short shore leave. Liara takes the photo and smiles at it as she puts it on her nightstand and crawls into bed.

She would have never thought it, but the Normandy crew has become a strange extended family. She just hopes that it lasts.

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and a kudo!


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